Possessing Or Being Possessed

A. S. Byatt has been hailed as one of the great post-modern novelists and insightful critics in Great Britain. She is considered the most consciously intellectual woman writer since George Eliot, and her erudition is equaled by her deep understanding of human passion.Byatt's Booker Prize-winning novel Possession:A Romance (1990) is considered her masterpiece and has drawn increasing critical attention since its publication. Many critics have made approaches to this work from different perspectives such as feminism, archetypal criticism, symbolism, or the narrative strategies of the novel, and have made fruitful achievements.Among the different criticisms made on Possession: A Romance, some pay attention to Byatt's unique feminist proposition, and try to shed light on her concern for female existence. Yet few critics have focused on Byatt's reflection on men's existential status.The present thesis endeavors to focus on and interpret Byatt's descriptions of male characters' life experiences and their predicaments in the post-modem society, and to arouse readers' critical thinking on how to achieve a genuine equality between women and men.